Tag Archives: Ed Wozniak

LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES: ANOTHER PARALLEL

“Can 2 of the worst presidents in history share an apartment … without driving each other crazy?”

This time around we’ll look at another of the many ways that Liberals and Conservatives are the same kind of unbearable people.

And not just because of the way they can’t comprehend that the rest of us (aka “adults”) aren’t the same narrow- minded partisans they are.  

  • * Conservatives delude themselves that
    they’re saving our souls for us and therefore we should mindlessly go along with their distorted worldview.
  • * Liberals delude themselves that they’re saving our planet for us and therefore we should mindlessly go along with their distorted worldview.

In reality both groups are interested only in stroking their own egos and reassuring themselves that they’re wonderful people for believing what they do. Both groups also lie habitually and bluster with indignant outrage whenever this is pointed out to them.

FOR MORE OF THESE CLICK HERE:  https://glitternight.com/2012/07/09/liberals-and-conservatives-and-why-we-despise-them-both/  Continue reading

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SILVERADO (1985): OFFICIAL WESTERN OF FRONTIERADO

Top Frontierado Movie

Top Frontierado Movie

Frontierado is coming up Friday, August 7th!

SILVERADO (1985) – I’ve never made any secret about how Silverado is, to me, THE official movie of the Frontierado holiday. The film has all the high spirits and family appeal of Star Wars plus the well-choreographed action scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark. On top of that Silverado features all the  highly stylized gunplay of the best Spaghetti Westerns but NOT the mud, blood, sweat and brutality of that genre.

This movie is pure escapism and features the kind of preternaturally accurate gunslingers that I jokingly  describe as “Jedi Knights in the Olllld West”. These guys (as well as most of the villains) can literally shoot the needles off a cactus, simultaneously draw and shoot with pin-point accuracy and can just “sense” when some low-down hombre might be pulling a gun on them, even with Continue reading

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TOP FOUR FORGOTTEN CONFLICTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY

With the Memorial Day holiday weekend coming up what could be more appropriate than to examine a few of the forgotten conflicts from America’s past? The soldiers who fell in those wars are no less dead just because they served in actions that are neglected in the history books and/or were never formally declared by Congress. (details, details)

And in keeping with my blog’s overall theme I won’t be bringing any of that weak Korean War, World War One or War of 1812 crap. When Balladeer says forgotten I mean forgotten with a capital (or at least italicized) “F”. As forgotten as The Montefuscos and Hizzoner. As forgotten as a Polish memoir or a promise from a presidential candidate.

4. THE FORGOTTEN YEAR OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1781 – 1782) – My fellow Revolutionary War geeks and I are forever rolling our eyes at documentaries that act like Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown marked the end of that conflict. True, it was the last MAJOR battle of the war, but there were 13 more months of open bloodshed and another year after that before the peace treaty was signed. 

October 1781 to November 1782 saw General “Mad” Anthony Wayne’s campaign to fully recover Georgia from British Loyalists and Continue reading

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U.S. PRESIDENTS: PROS AND CONS

Fun Fact: Barbara Bush patterned her “look” after Millard Fillmore

In honor of the President’s Day Holiday weekend Balladeer’s Blog will present some of my quick takes on each of the 44 men who have stayed one step ahead of the law while occupying the office.

1. GEORGE WASHINGTON – Motto – “Screw taking a salary as a General, just bill ’em outrageously for your expenses!”  *** Nickname: The First Lady of Broadway *** Pro: Established the precedent of stepping down after 2 terms max.  Con: Owned other human beings.

2. JOHN ADAMS – Motto – ” A day without alienating someone is like a day without sunshine.” *** Nickname: Boom-Boom *** Pro: Was almost fanatically honest.  Con: Alienated nearly everyone except his wife Abigail.

3. THOMAS JEFFERSON – Motto: ” What’s with that painting where I look like Bea Arthur?” *** Nickname: The Pompous Hypocrite *** Pro:  Continue reading

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REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLES BEFORE THE FOURTH OF JULY

 Balladeer’s Blog as usual will be marking the USA’s upcoming birthday with a series of holiday-themed posts. Since we get overexposed to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 I will instead stay true to my blog’s theme and focus on the action in between April 19th, 1775 and early July 1776.

May 10th, 1775 – The British Fort Ticonderoga in New York is seized in what would today be called a Special Forces raid by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, who beat other American forces to the valuable military prize. Allen and his men had the advantage of being an organized body under arms for quite a long time because they were originally formed to fight for the independence of what is now the state of Vermont (“Green Mountain”).

They had been an active guerilla force fighting for Vermont’s right to be an independent entity rather than part of the Hampshire Grants being fought over by New York and New Hampshire. Their secret headquarters was the Catamount Tavern which is why the University of Vermont’s sports teams are called the Catamounts. 

May 12th, 1775 – Crown Point, NY is taken by American forces in another early but forgotten action. 

May 16th – Benedict Arnold’s ultimately ill-fated invasion of Canada sees its first action as his forces besiege  St John. Among Arnold’s troops are Continue reading

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KIVIOQ: INUIT MYTHOLOGY’S PREMIER MONSTER SLAYER

For more of my entries on Inuit myths click herehttps://glitternight.com/inuit-myth/

KIVIOQ – The greatest hero and monster- slayer of Inuit mythology. The exact structure of Kivioq’s saga varies wildly from region to region, some of them with a fully Continue reading

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FRONTIERADO POKER

"You're not goin' nowhere, ya bottom-dealin' Hombre," the gambler-gunfighter exclaimed, "We've got us a few apparent paradoxes and their effect upon contemporary religious thought to discuss!"

“You’re not goin’ nowhere, ya bottom-dealin’ Hombre,” the gambler-gunfighter exclaimed, “We’ve got us a few apparent paradoxes and their effect upon contemporary religious thought to discuss!”

The Frontierado holiday is coming up fast – on Friday, August 2nd, in fact. Today we’ll revisit the rules of Frontierado Poker for newbies to the holiday.

Here are the rules for Frontierado  Poker, the game that is Continue reading

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TOP FOUR FRONTIERADO MOVIES: NUMBER ONE – SILVERADO (1985)

Top Frontierado Movie

Top Frontierado Movie

SILVERADO (1985) – I’ve never made any secret about how Silverado is, to me, THE official movie of the Frontierado holiday. The film has all the high spirits and family appeal of Star Wars plus the well-choreographed action scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark. On top of that Silverado features all the  highly stylized gunplay of the best Spaghetti Westerns but NOT the mud, blood, sweat and brutality of that genre.

This movie is pure escapism and features the kind of preternaturally accurate gunslingers that I jokingly  describe as “Jedi Knights in the Olllld West”. These guys (as well as most of the villains) can literally shoot the needles off a cactus, simultaneously draw and shoot with pin-point accuracy and can just “sense” when some low-down hombre might be pulling a gun on them, even with Continue reading

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TOP FOUR FRONTIERADO MOVIES: NUMBER TWO – ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)

Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and, for some reason, Ray Stevens. (I'm kidding!)

Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and, for some reason, Ray Stevens. (I’m kidding!)

Frontierado is Friday, August 2nd!

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is, to me, the definitive Spaghetti Western. This movie incorporates all of the best elements of Italo-westerns and has the additional advantages of actual artistic merit and some location filming in the real American West. One of the most distracting elements of many Spaghetti oaters is the fact that the films were mostly shot in Spain’s Jarama Valley, which is great for a Spanish Civil War buff like myself, but that valley doesn’t really resemble the American west that the stories are set in.

Sergio Leone got to shoot some scenes for this flick in Monument Valley and such authentic scenery definitely helps in a film that exploits visuals to a degree unseen since the age of silent movies. This is undeniably an action film, but Leone and his co-writers on the script ( Bernardo Bertollucci and Dario Argento. I’m serious!) intentionally used the framework of an archetypal western plot about the railroad, land-grabbing and westward expansion, yet made it all seem fresh.    

I often jokingly call this movie Evil Is A Man Named Frank, because, in a masterpiece of reverse-casting Leone put Henry Fonda himself in the role of the conscienceless, sadistic and predatory Frank, the lead villain. Watching the Continue reading

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MORE NEGLECTED GUNSLINGERS FOR FRONTIERADO

FRONTIERADO IS COMING ON FRIDAY, AUGUST SECOND!

With the Frontierado holiday almost upon us what better time to examine three more figures who helped make the American west wild?

Lottie Deno

Lottie Deno

3. LOTTIE DENO – Equally comfortable  dealing faro, playing poker or shooting a pistol Charlotte “Lottie” Deno was one of the most famous female gamblers of the old west, along with Poker Alice. Lottie didn’t engage in nearly as many gunfights as Poker Alice did, but she didn’t have to, since she was very skilled at maneuvering lovesick men into doing some of her killing for her. Even her no-good husband Johnny Golden was bumped off by two of Lottie’s male conquests. 

Lottie, who said she learned card-playing from her father, was a former southern belle who came west after the Confederacy fell. She spent three years in San Antonio dealing faro and playing poker in, among other places, the iconic vaudeville saloon of Jack Harris, where Texas Ben Thompson and King Fisher were killed the same night in 1884. Fellow gambler Frank Thurmond began a romance with Lottie but when he Continue reading

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